CARPENTER GETS FIRST SHOT AT SECOND BASE JOB

> Matt Carpenter started at second in today’s Spring Training game. He was only at second for five innings, but nothing went wrong in those five innings. In fact, he turned a pretty slick double play along with Ronny Cedeno.

The experiment of Carpenter at second base has the potential to make a huge difference for the 2013 Cardinals. Matt Carpenter, with pedestrian defense, would win more games for the Cardinals if he started every day than Daniel Descalso would. However, as we saw last year, Daniel Descalso’s defense is giving him priority over better hitters who don’t field the position well.

Jose Oquendosaid a couple weeks ago that Carpenter was ahead of Skip Schumaker defensively (while conceding that that’s not that hard to do.) Assuming that’s true, this makes Carpenter on paper the clear choice for the starting job. He can produce runs at the plate while costing little if any in the field.

And really, Descalso’s value can be increased if he is a back-up. With him on the bench you have a lefty who hits well against lefties–a perfect wrench to throw in the cogs of opposing managers’ lefty-righty strategies. And once he pinch-hits against the lefty that faces Carpenter late in a game, he becomes a great late defensive replacement.

I like Descalso, but I’d like him best if he was being used in the most effective way. Which is why I hope Carpenter keeps making the most of these opportunities.

> Also of note in today’s lineup was that Allen Craig and Rafael Furcal were in it. Furcal led off as the DH, and as earlier mentioned, he can’t throw or hit from the left side for a few days.

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2 responses to “CARPENTER GETS FIRST SHOT AT SECOND BASE JOB”

Going to have to be a lot of people filling specific niches this year in order to make it work. The more deep I get into baseball, the more I realize that it’s the timing of small contracts (and getting the most of those players and young players) that make everything work.